Vancouver man appalled at Sochi conditions after working on ski, snowboarding courses

Vancouver's Johnnie Balfour has been blogging about poor conditions around Sochi, where he is helping to design some of the ski and snowboard courses.Photo by

A Vancouver man may be on his way back home from a work assignment at the Sochi Olympics, days after blogging about Russian red tape, $75 for a couple of small pizzas, a filthy hotel room with muddy water and no hot showers and a two-hour commute.

But the biggest concern for Johnnie Balfour is that he worried he wasn’t going to get paid.

Balfour, who was part of the construction crew for the courses at Cypress Mountain for the 2010 Winter Olympics, blogged earlier this month that he had been invited to help build the Sochi tracks for the 2014 Winter Games that start next month.

“So I’m off to Russia!” he wrote.

The next entry on his Tumblr blog, dated Jan. 21, from Balfour, an ex-Australian soldier who now lives with his wife and baby in Vancouver, is much less enthusiastic. It included a video of his accommodations, “which really doesn’t show how bad this place is,” he wrote.

“The toilet flushes muddy water, there is no hot water, the shower floor is covered in dirt and mud, there was p--- all over the toilet, the water is undrinkable (it’s brown), it’s even sketchy to brush your teeth in it, and the idea of having internet in this place is a joke.”

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But the post, that went on to describe troubles with getting his accreditation, negative descriptions of the resort and worrying disputes over payment for the work he and five others were flown to Sochi to do, disappeared from his blog the next day.

The blog was captured before it was deleted and posted to the alpinezone.com online forum.

In a later posting, Balfour wrote the snow has started to fall and the alpine events at Sochi should go on without a problem.

“There is plenty of snow on the mountain and the course will be ready and will be amazing,” he said. “There is a group of very talented people working there and it will be fine.

“I do stand by what I wrote and it is a 100% true account of what went down and what I observed in my first few days,” he added.

”There is most definitely more to come. I have been keeping notes and there is plenty more for me to write about.”

Balfour didn’t return tweets or emails but a friend who contacted The Province about his blog said Balfour was flying back to Vancouver and was expected to arrive Sunday.

Balfour had been hired months ago by the Sochi 2014 organizing committee to build the skier-cross and boarder-cross courses at Rosa Khutor, the ski resort built for the Olympics.

Balfour blogged that after spending a day to get accredited, he and his workmates met with organizers to discuss their contracts.

He said during six months of negotiations, the Sochi officials insisted on opening up Russian bank accounts in which to deposit his pay.

“How the hell can they open an account in my name without my details or signature is beyond me and sounds very dodgy!”

Balfour said in talks while he was still in Canada, he insisted on payment 10 days after signing the contract.

In the in-person talks, Sochi officials said they wouldn’t pay them until 10 days after they left.

“I have a very strong feeling we are never going to get paid,” he said.

“I told them in no uncertain terms that what they are trying to do is total bulls--- and if they had disclosed this information earlier, I would not have agreed to come here.”

Other first impressions he made: “Nothing is finished here and there is piles of garbage everywhere. Muddy water is pouring off the mountain and flowing through the streets and the cobblestone pavers are all lifting up or disappearing into sinkholes. ... Most of the buildings aren’t finished.”

When he arrived in his room: “My heart sinks. This is no hotel. There are two small metal framed beds in the centre of the room with thin mattresses leaning against the wall. My room consists of two small rooms and a bathroom.”

But Balfour said he was treated like a “rockstar” when he landed in Moscow, where he was met by an army of volunteers in Sochi 2014 uniforms.

“I was escorted through all checkpoints, customs, baggage claim, baggage check for my next flight by an attractive Russian girl who pushed me to the front of every line. ... The whole process took about 20 minutes from plane to plane.”

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